Tom Martin: Perpetual Motion

About

This exhibition comes seven years after Tom Martin had his last solo show at the gallery and therefore explores a new chapter in his life. One in which he is now a husband and a father and has moved on from the simpler responsibilities and priorities of a single man. Therefore, the subjects in Martin’s paintings have changed quite considerably but his work is still as much about his daily life as it has ever been.

Martin’s latest paintings are in keeping with his bold graphic style of composition. He places objects such as flowers, piggy banks, globes and money onto striking backgrounds made up of primary and secondary colours, which are placed on clean crisp surfaces. This allows the object to be the complete focus of the viewer, presenting Martin’s explorations in the most direct way.

In 2014 Martin started exploring the role that money and politics have on people’s lives around the world. ‘Perpetual Motion’ refers to the perception of the banks as a self-driven, closed, self-sustaining system. Martin explores the concept that we are controlled and driven by money. This is overt within his works ‘Money Makes the World go Round’ which are images of globes covered in different currencies, concealing the globe underneath.

“The more I thought about it the more it rings true.  Money does control us all to some extent in this modern world. All too easy to lose sight of what is more important. To analyse the title of my show, a ‘perpetual motion’ machine is self-driven, a closed self-sustaining system.  For too long the banks were thought of in this way, which ultimately led to their collapse in recent times.” - Tom Martin